Arthur Harald-Gallén 1880-1931

Arthur Harald-Gallén was born in 1880 in Reval, Finland. In 1888, his family moved to Helsinki, where he began his studies. Financial difficulties forced him to interrupt his education in 1895, which he resumed only in 1900 at the University’s School of Drawing, and later at the Drawing School of the Artists’ Association, which awarded him a teaching diploma.

Without means and guided by an adventurous spirit, in 1902 he set out on foot for Paris. After several months of walking in extreme poverty, he reached the French capital. In 1904, he moved into 26 rue Lhomond, the site of the Workers’ Gardens project of Abbé Lemire, with whom he would develop a close relationship. The clergyman became a great admirer of his work and encouraged his artistic activity.

In Paris, Harald-Gallén joined the Scandinavian community and, through it, met painters Christian Krohg and Frits Thaulow, whose approaches influenced his conception and depiction of nature. These new connections also enabled him, thanks to financial support, to take courses at the Académie Julian, the Académie Colarossi, and the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Gabriel Ferrier and possibly William Bouguereau (according to L’Afrique du Nord Illustrée, 15 May 1909). At the same time, he trained in etching under Fernand Desmoulin.

From 1905 onwards, he traveled throughout France, then in 1906 visited Spain and Morocco, supported by a travel grant from the Scandinavian painters’ community in Paris. In 1907, he visited Italy, and between 1908 and 1911, he was commissioned by the Governor General of Algeria for an artistic mission in the colony as well as in Morocco. In 1912, he traveled to Palestine and Egypt.

It was during this period that his works began to be exhibited - at Oran, the Villa Scala in Algiers, the Ateneum in Helsinki, and also in Paris, where he was the subject of two major exhibitions. The first was in 1909 at the Galerie d’Art Décoratif, and the second in 1911 at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune, where his painting Croissant de lune (Crescent Moon) was displayed. These exhibitions were attended by European high society, and archival records show that among Harald-Gallén’s regular buyers was “His Highness Henri de Bourbon […] considered for the throne of Finland.”

In 1914, Harald-Gallén traveled to Ceylon, India, Singapore, China, and Japan. At the end of World War I, he served as a nurse in Helsinki’s civil protection corps before being attached to the Finnish embassy in Madrid until 1921. He spent the remainder of his life in Helsinki, where he died in 1931.